Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T03:08:58.175Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - Healthy, Literate, and Smart

The Global Increase in Human Capital

from Part II - Factors Governing Differential Outcomes in the Global Economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2021

By
Latika Chaudhary  and
Peter Lindert
Edited by
Stephen Broadberry  and
Kyoji Fukao
Stephen Broadberry
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Kyoji Fukao
Affiliation:
Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo
Get access

Summary

Impressive gains in global life expectancy and education from 1870 to 2010 are documented. Life expectancy increased from thirty years in 1870 to seventy-one years in 2010, while an increasing number of children have attended schools and acquired formal education. The key factors responsible for these improvements are identified. Although economic growth and development increased worldwide, income has never been the main driver of life expectancy. Rather, the gains in survival came from public health efforts, medical innovations, and expanding public education. While income and schooling are no doubt positively related, the role of public funds in increasing mass education is also highlighted. The high economic returns to education are documented and then an explanation sought for why the whole world is not more educated, given the large economic returns to education. The divergence in income per capita across the world is contrasted with the relative convergence in human capital.

Keywords

Life expectancyhealthrise of educationreturns to educationmass education.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World , pp. 329 - 355
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

A’Hearn, B., Baten, J., and Crayen, D. (2009). ‘Quantifying Quantitative Literacy: Age Heaping and the History of Human Capital’, Journal of Economic History, 69(3), 783–808.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alesina, A., Baqir, R., and Easterly, W. (1999). ‘Public Goods and Ethnic Divisions’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(4), 1243–1284.Google Scholar
Chaudhary, L. (2009). ‘Determinants of Primary Schooling in British India’, Journal of Economic History, 69(1), 269–302.Google Scholar
de la Fuente, A. and Doménech, R. (2006). ‘Human Capital in Growth Regressions: How Much Difference does Data Quality Make?’, Journal of the European Economic Association, 4(1), 1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deaton, A. (2013). The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality, Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Drèze, J. and Sen, A. (2013). An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions, Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Easterlin, R. A. (1981). ‘Why Isn’t the Whole World Developed?’, Journal of Economic History, 41(1), 1–17.Google Scholar
Easterlin, R. A. (1999). ‘How Beneficent Is the Market? A Look at the Modern History of Mortality’, European Review of Economic History, 3(3), 257–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engerman, S. L., Mariscal, E. V., and Sokoloff, K. L. (2009). ‘The Evolution of Schooling Institutions in the Americas, 1800–1925’, in Eltis, D., Lewis, F., and Sokoloff, K. (eds.), Human Capital and Institutions: A Long Run View, New York: Cambridge University Press, 93–142.Google Scholar
Flynn, J. R. (2012). Are We Getting Smarter? Rising IQ in the Twenty-First Century, Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanushek, E. A. and Woessmann, L. (2015). The Knowledge Capital of Nations, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, E. M. and Hill, M. A. (1997). ‘Women’s Education in Developing Countries: An Overview’, in King, E. M. and Hill, M. A. (eds.), Women’s Education in Developing Countries: Barriers, Benefits, and Policies, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1–50.Google Scholar
Lee, J.-W. and Lee, H. (2016). ‘Human Capital in the Long Run’, Journal of Development Economics, 122, 147–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindert, P. H. (2004). Growing Public: Social Spending and Economic Growth since the Eighteenth Century, 2 vols, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lindert, P. H. (2010). ‘The Unequal Lag in Latin American Schooling since 1900: Follow the Money’, Revista de Historia Económica, 28(2): 375–405.Google Scholar
Lleras-Muney, A. (2005). ‘The Relationship between Education and Adult Mortality in the United States’, Review of Economic Studies, 72(1), 189–221.Google Scholar
McKeown, T. (1976). The Modern Rise of Population, New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Miller, G. (2008). ‘Women’s Suffrage, Political Responsiveness, and Child Survival in American History’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123(3), 1287–1327.Google Scholar
Montenegro, C. E. and Patrinos, H. A. (2014). ‘Comparable Estimates of Returns to Schooling Around the World’, policy research working paper 7020, Education Global Practice Group, World Bank.Google Scholar
Pritchett, L. (1997). ‘Divergence, Big Time’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 11(3), 3–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Psacharopoulos, G. (2004). ‘The Returns to Investment in Higher Education: A Global Update’, World Development, 22: 1325–1343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Psacharopoulos, G. and Patrinos, H. A. (2004). ‘Returns to Investment in Education: A Further Update’, Education Economics, 12(2), 111–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riley, J. C. (2005). ‘Estimates of Regional and Global Life Expectancy, 1800–2001’, Population and Development Review, 31(3), 537–543.Google Scholar
van Zanden, J. L., Baten, J., Mira d’Hercole, M., Rijpma, A., Smith, C., and Timmer, M. (eds.) (2014). How Was Life? Global Well-Being since 1820, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Zaridze, D., Lewington, S., Boroda, A., Scélo, G., Karpov, R., Lazarev, A. et al. (2014). ‘Alcohol and Mortality in Russia: Prospective Observational Study of 151,000 Adults’, Lancet 383(9927), 1465–1473.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×